Why I Ride – lovingthebike.comhttp://lovingthebike.com
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:31:37 +0000en-UShourly1Why I…http://lovingthebike.com/uncategorized/why-i
http://lovingthebike.com/uncategorized/why-i#commentsWed, 03 Mar 2010 15:10:33 +0000http://lovingthebike.com/?p=347I read a nice article the other week entitled, #whyweride which highlighted a twitter discussion on the topic. It was great to see all the different responses to why those individuals ride a bike. I find it very interesting to see why other people love cycling so much and what it is that motivates them to devote their time and energy to it. No doubt, it’s a hot topic. With sites like www.whyibike.com, www.whyibike.org, and countless blogs and stories explaining “Why I Ride”, I’ve been able to keep myself quite busy reading about our great love for the bike. The amount of passion for cycling out there has enough emotion and energy to blow anybody away. It’s incredible….and I Love It.

I know why I ride. I know exactly why I ride and it gets me on my bike day after day, year after year. But when I thought about it, I wasn’t totally sure why it is that I blog….or blog about cycling for that matter. I started this website for quite a few different reasons, but I never really sat down and sorted them through to find out exactly why. So here it is, and I am open and happy to share them all with you.

1. Freedom – It’s tough to classify my reasoning in order, but I would honestly have to say that my number one reason

c/o richardmasoner

for starting this page was to get myself online. What I mean is that with a plan to move my family to another countryas soon as I can, my goal is to have an online business or presence that allows me to generate even a little bit of income from any location on the planet.

I brainstormed on many different ideas and concepts, but wasn’t able to find an online business that fit my values and desires. So my search continued.

2. Passion – When I wasn’t able to find my “get rich quick” (with morals) business online I decided to hold off searching for a portable business of freedom, and change my thinking a little bit. I picked up a great book called “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk….actually I got the audio version which was a first for me. It’s a great book for many reasons (Gary’s personality is enough to make it a valuable purchase), but what I got out of it most was: Passion First, everything else second.

So what sort of thing could I do online that I would love to do no matter what…something that I would love to do even if I didn’t make money at it. It didn’t take long to see that it had to be cycling.

3. Community – Okay, so I had my passion and knew that I wanted to take it online. But since getting this site up and running I’ve realized that I am doing this for more than passion. Right away, I realized that being part of a world-wide online cycling community is such a rewarding experience. I’ve met amazing people, been inspired by incredible stories, and have learnt so much more about cycling than I ever knew was out there.

Being part of a great online cycling community provides so much more. It keeps me totally on top of my sport. It allows me to learn about new technology, new strategies, new equipment, and so much more. Finally, it allows me to share my passion among like minded people….and hopefully others who either find my posts interesting or want to learn more.

The Rays of Wisdom

4. Writing – I love to write….which is a good thing if I’m going to keep putting up content on this site. I used to do
motivational type writing for an organization I created called “The Rays of Wisdom”. I enjoyed the writing I did for the Rays and am loving getting back into it here. For some of my blogs, I’ve already used concepts and themes that I wrote about with the Rays, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be using more in the future.

5. Monetize – As I already mentioned, I would do this website even if I wasn’t getting paid for it. With that said, I am looking at ways that I can monetize this site in some way. We have some great sponsors on the site and definitely are loving their support, but I have to be honest and transparent here, and say that it’s definitely something I would like to incorporate more of into the site. I would like for this monetizing to come from something other than Google adsense, Affiliate links, and things like that….but I am exploring these as potential options. As long as I feel that they have a place, do not take away from the site, and are morally sound, I’ll likely give some of these options a go.

I’ve also signed onto something called “My Likes”. Now this is a program that pays you to promote certain products through social media. My only intention with this program is to talk about and promote products and services that I 100% believe in and have no problem encouraging others to check out as well. I actually haven’t used My Likes very often, but am thinking of using it some more. But as I use it, I’m going to keep asking for feedback to make sure they come across in a positive manner. So keep me accountable here guys….if I start using something that just ain’t cool, be sure to let me know.

So at the moment, I would call my blogging a hobby. It takes a lot of time, requires a lot of energy, it doesn’t directly improve my athletic performance…..but I appreciate and enjoy it. It’s a great hobby that correlates to loving the bike, and all the reasons why I ride.

Why do you blog? Why do you run a website? What attracts you to reading blogs?